Important of Salat al-Fatih by Sheikh Abul Abbas Hammad Tijani (RTA)
The journey of Salat-al Fatih started from Sheikh Naksabandi (RTA) ( AL Torikat Naqshbandiyah ) who is a great saint, that pray to Almighty Allah to inspired him with a different formula of prayer for the holy Prophet and the kind of prayer that is greater than any other prayer (ASSALATU). And he was inspired with Salat-al fatih but has to wait for Abul Abbas Hammad Tijani (RTA) for the key.
Out of all the authentic formulas to shower prayers upon the Holy Prophet (peace and blessing be upon him), Sidna Sheikh, the Seal of Saints, the Known Mohammadian Seal, the Concealed Pole, Moulana Abul Abbas Ahmed ibn Mohammad Tijani (may Allah be satisfied with him), prompted his companions and beloved to apply the peerless and stunning Prayer of Salat al-Fatih because of the great benefits that are in it. Sidna Sheikh Tijani (may Allah be pleased with him) has received in broad daylight many prayers from the Holy Prophet (peace and blessing be upon him) such as Jawharat al-Kamal (The Complete Jewel) and Yaqutat al-Haqaiq (The Jewel of Realities). However, Sidna Sheikh stressed the application of Salat al-Fatih like no other. When some of his companions were seeking another prayer, Sidna Sheikh used to say: “Set many prayers upon the Prophet (peace and blessing be upon him) with Salat al-Fatih because in it is the good of this world and the Hereafter, and by Salat al-Fatih one obtains all his desires and reaches all his wishes. On the reward of Salat al-Fatih, al-Khalifa Sidi Ali Harazem reports in Kitab Jawahir al-Ma’ani,
Sidna Sheikh said: I have asked the Prophet (peace and blessing be upon him) on the reward of Salat al-Fatih to which he (peace and blessing be upon him) responded, “it is worth six thousand (6000) recitation of the Holy Quran'”. Verily, Salat al-Fatih is a divine matter which has no room for the mind intellect. If we were to estimate there are 100,000 nations each nation is made of 100,000 tribes each tribe is made of 100,000 men each one of those men lived for 100,000 years and recited 1,000 prayer upon the Prophet (other than Salat al-Fatih) every day of their lives then the reward (thawab) for all of these nations along all these years would not catch up with the reward of one times of reciting Salat al-Fatih!
The venerated Tijanite Sheikh, Sidi Abul Fadl al-Haj Omar ibn Said al-Futi Tall (d. 1279/1864) informs in the book entitled the “Rimah al Hizb al Raheem ala Nuhur al Hizb al Rajeem” (The spears of the league of the Merciful thrown at the necks of the league of the accursed),
As for the invocation of Salat al-Fatih it has three degrees: an external degree, an internal degree and the degree of the inmost (batin al-batin). I had intended to provide a complete explanation of it at this point, and to describe its marvels and its wonders. I was prevented from that, however by the fact that most people lack the maturity required for the acquisition of that kind of knowledge. I shall therefore content myself with mentioning some of what is available in Kitab Jawahir al Ma’ani concerning the external degree.
Sidna Sheikh has said: “As for Salat al-Fatih when I asked the Prophet about it, he informed me first of all, that it is worth six hundred thousand invocation of blessing (600,000). I also asked him, ‘For each invocation of blessing does one bird fly up toward heaven-that being the bird which has seventy thousand wings, as described in the Hadith, or do six hundred thousand (600,000) birds of that kind fly up each time, and is the reward of their glorification assigned to the invoker of blessing upon the Prophet?’ The Prophet replied: “Six hundred thousand birds of that kind fly up each time.”
As for the number of each bird’s tongues, the Sheikh said, “The total number of its tongues is 1,680,000,700,000,000,000,000.000. Each tongue glorifies Allah in seventy thousand languages in a split second, and all of is reward is assigned each time to the invoker of blessing upon the Prophet. This applies to every prayer on the Prophet than Salat al-Fatih. As for the latter, it gives rise, each time, to six hundred thousand (600,000) birds of the kind described, as previously mentioned.” Sidna Sheikh then went on to say, “When I asked the Prophet about the authenticity of the Hadith, ‘The invocation of showering a prayer upon him (salat ‘ala Sidna Mohammad) one time, is worth the reward of four hundred (400) military campaigns (ghazwa) and every campaign is worth four hundred (400) pilgrimages (‘hajja).’ The Prophet replied: “It is indeed authentic”.
I then asked the Prophet about the number of these campaigns: ‘Are four hundred (400) campaigns equivalent to a single offering of Salat al-Fatih, or are four hundred (400) campaigns equivalent to each of the six hundred thousand (600,000) invocations of blessing?’ The Prophet answered: Salat al-Fatih is worth six hundred thousand (600,000) invocations of showering a prayer upon him one, and each of the six hundred thousand (600,000) invocations of blessing is worth four hundred campaigns’!
Then he went on to say: If someone invokes it (Salat al-Fatih); one time, he will receive the reward he would receive if he offered every invocation of salat upon the Prophet ever offered in the universe, by all the jinn, human beings and angels, six hundred thousand times (600,000), from the beginning of time until the moment when he utters its invocation. In other words, it is as if he has offered six hundred thousand times (600,000) all the invocations ever invoked by all the invokers of salat, angels, jinn and human beings, every one of those invocations being worth a spouse among the houries (al-‘hur al-‘in), and ten good deeds (‘hasanat), and the erasure of ten bad deeds (sayyiat), and promotion by ten degrees (darajat). Allah and his angels will also bless him ten times for every invocation of blessing. Sidna Sheikh then said: Once you have contemplated this with your heart, you will know that no act of worship is equal to a single offering of the salat upon the Prophet, so how about someone who offers it many times?” What gracious favor he enjoys in the presence of Allah, and this is received each time.
Moulana Sheik Islam Alhaji Mukadam Mohammad Awwal Ibn Abdullahi has mandated us to recites al-Fayd al-Ahmadi fil-Mawlid al-Muhammadi, Albrudah Sharif(Sheikh Busairi), Sa Sheik Burahama, and the Modiu Nabiyu below in welcoming the month of Rabi-al-Awwal . He confirms that Moulana Sheikh Ibrhim Niyass did the same and till today all the Tijaniyat, Ibrahimyat and Awwaliyat still maintain the same.
لفضيلة شيخ الإسلام الخليفة العام
الحاج المقدم محمد الأول بن عبد الله
أينلا
رضى الله عنه
بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
أللهم صلى على محمــــد يا رب صلى عليه و ســـلم
فى حب سيدنا محمــــــد نور لبدر الهدى متمــــــــم
قلبى يحين إلى محمـــــد ما زال من وجده متيــــــــم
مالى حبيب سوى محمـد خير الرسول النبى المكــرم
شوق المحب إلى محمــد أفناه ثم به تهيــــــــــــــــــم
فى الحشر شافعنا محمـد منجى الخلائق من جهـــــنم
ميلاد سيدنا محــــــــــمد أم القرى بلد معظـــــــــــــم
أحيا الدجا زمنا محــــمد مولاه سلمه و كلـــــــــــــــم
أدعوك أحمد يا مــــحمد يا سيد الرسل المـــــــــــقدم
إشفع إلى الله يا مــــحمد يوم القيامة كي أنــــــــــعم
أرجو الشفاعة من محمد لو كنت أرتكب المــــــحرم
منجا وملجانا محـــــــمد يوم الهوان به تحشـــــــــــم
والنور جاء به مـــــحمد والحق بين إذنكـــــــــــــــلم
أعلى السماء سما مـحمد جبريل قال له تــــــــــــــقدم
والجند حين غزا مــحمد منهم ملائكة تســـــــــــــــوم
والدين أظهره مــــــحمد والكفر أبطله فـــــــــــــــهدم
صلى الإله على مـــحمد والآل كلهم و ســــــــــــــلـم
وصلى الله على مـــحمد وعلى أصحبه و ســــــــــــلم
